Islamic State Claims Attack that Killed at Least 8 Egyptian Policemen in Sinai

The Islamic State terrorist organization claimed responsibility for a Wednesday attack that killed at least eight Egyptian police officers in the volatile Sinai Peninsula. “[ISIS] fighters…launched simultaneous attacks on two police checkpoints in the city of El Arish,” read a statement released by the jihadist group’s Amaq propaganda “news agency.” Since President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi deposed former Muslim Brotherhood-associated president Mohamed Morsi in 2013, dozens, if not hundreds, of Egyptian forces have been killed in an ongoing counter-insurgency operation against Sinai Province, which the local ISIS affiliate calls itself. During this period, the terror group has perpetrated multiple massacres, most notably the 2017 murder of over 300 worshipers at the Rawduh Sufi mosque, the deadliest attack in Egypt’s modern history. ISIS has similarly targeted Coptic Christian houses of worship as well as tourists in and around Cairo.